Vampire Academy: Graduation
by Lauz1
Summary: Rose Hathaway has been on the hunt for him for nearly three months and now her determination to find him will lead her back home to the people she left behind. Set Post-Shadow Kiss.
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

_**Running into a Strigoi, I knew during the heat of battle was one thing. Purposely hunting down someone…someone I loved. Well, I didn't know if I could do that, even if it was technically the right thing to do.**_

_And yet here I was, attempting to hitchhike my way to Missoula by using the feminine charms I had inherited from my mother to do just that. I had walked for five miles through the thick of the forest before finding myself at the edge of the highway. As soon as my feet touched the gravel adjacent to the road, a truck slowed and came to a halt a few feet in front of me. That was fast. The window on the passenger's side wound down and the guy behind the wheel leaned over and looked out of the window. "You need a ride, suga?" _

_I did need a ride; the cold was beginning to seep through the layers of clothing. Sure it may have been bordering on spring time but walking a couple of hours through an isolated forest was enough to cool even my blood "You headed anywhere near Missoula?" I asked. _

_"Driving right through," He responded and grinned down at me. _

_I nodded and pulled open the passengers door, hoping up and into the truck. I closed the door behind me and took shivered with pleasure as a gust of heat from the air vent pressed against my exposed skin. _

_"I'm Larry…"_

_I turned and looked at him. His hair was dark and messy, he sported a five o'clock shadow and his eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. "Rose." _

_"So," He started the truck and pulled away from the side of the road, where he had stopped to pick me up. "What's your story?" _

_"I don't have one," I sighed looking out of the window, staring absent-mindedly at the darkening sky. _

_"I doubt that," I could feel his eyes on me as a throaty laugh escape his lips._

_"Look, "I turned and looked at him just as he turned his attention back to the road disappearing beneath our feet. "I don't mean to be rude especially as you were so kind in stopping for me…" I paused and frowned, "But I'm not interested in your story and you'd be less interested in mine. And I'd really appreciate it if you could continue driving with your eyes firmly fixed on the road and not mind screwing me." I turned back and waited, expectantly for him to pull over and kick my ass out. Instead I was surprised when he laughed again. _

_"Jeez, girl…" He continued laughing. "You're a prickly little thing, aren't ya!" _

_He stopped with the questions directed at me and instead began to ramble on about himself. Apparently he was thirty eight though if he would have asked me to guess his age, I would have guessed older. He had been married twice, the first time to his high school sweetheart. They had been married three years when she had upped and left him for the milkman. He had met his second wife while visiting Thailand, according to him it had been love at first sight. They had been married less than three months when she had upped and left him for the mailman. _

_I closed my eyes and tuned out of his mindless chatter and decided to catch up on some beauty sleep while I still could. Only instead of a peaceful slumber, I found myself confronted with a pair of blood red, angry Strigoi eyes. _

_My eyes opened automatically and my mind began to work overtime to banish that image from my head. It was still far too early to think of him in that way; cold, evil and dead. _

_"How far is the airport from the city center?" I asked, turning my attention back to Larry, the truck driver. I needed to distract myself from thinking of him like that and what was a better distraction than planning 'the how to kill a former lover'. _

_It usually took a little over three hours to reach Missoula from the academy, however driving at a steady speed of fifty miles per hour and stopping every half hour so Larry could fill the tank with gas, or have a coffee, or take a leak, meant that the journey had taken a little under six hours. Not that I was complaining, the sun had began to rise over the Montana mountains during the drive which meant that upon arrival into the city center, the ordinary world would be awake. _

_Larry graciously dropped me off in the city center; going out of his way to put me right outside of the Missoula bank Adrian had told me to go to. _

_"Thank you," I hopped out of the warm truck, closed the door behind me and was immediately greeted with an icy blast. Earlier this evening I had felt the springtime warmth radiating from the setting sun but that luxury had abandoned me as soon as I had stepped foot outside of the Academy's protective walls. I pulled my jacket closer and swung the bag which contained my world belongings over my shoulder. _

_I pulled on the double doors and stepped inside, immersing myself with the suits. _

_"Can I help you?" _

_I turned and looked at the woman who was offering me assistance. She was easily thirty, dark brown hair, made up face and dressed for business. The only thing that screamed unprofessional from her was the quick once over she gave me, a disparaging glare touching her eyes for briefest of moments. _

_"I'm here to finalise an account," I tried to imitate how the Royal Moroi talked down to they everyday Moroi. "It's under Ivashkov," I added hoping to see a touch of recognition in her face. And I did. _

_Her smile widened causing the crow lines at the side of her eyes to become more pronounced. "Certainly, if you would like to follow me," And she was suddenly acting as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. _

_I followed her to a corner office. She tapped on the glass door three times, before turning the handle and opening it. "Mr Miller, excuse the intrusion," Better wouldn't melt in her mouth, I thought again. "But there is a young lady here to finalise an account under Ivashkov." _

_"Thank you Louise, please send her in." _

_Louise turned and actually had the nerve to smile at me. Bitch. I didn't wait for her to indicate for me to enter the office, instead I sidestepped her, walked inside and closed the door in her face. "You really need to re-evaluate the kind of staff you have working here," I spoke out of place and set my bag down on the floor. _

_"Excuse me?" The grey haired man behind the desk looked at me through his glasses, confused. _

_"Never mind," I shrugged off my encounter with Louise and sat down on the chair opposite him. "I'm Rose Hathaway." I hoped that was all I had needed to say. _

_"Ah, yes, of course." He pulled back from his desk and stood, walking across the room to one of the large filing cabinets. He opened it and flicked through the files inside before pulling one out. "My name is Marcus Miller," He turned and walked back to his desk, sitting back down in his chair. "I deal exclusively with the Ivashkov account and was informed two days ago that a Miss Rosemarie Hathaway would be in need of an account setup under the Ivashkov account." _

_I nodded as he opened the file and pulled out a piece of paper, sliding it across the desk towards me. "An account has been setup in your name and a credit limit of fifteen thousand dollars has been accredited to your account." He continued looking down at the piece of paper before him, as my mouth dropped silently and performed a perfect O shape. _

_"I'm sorry, how much?" I asked confused. _

_"Fifteen thousand dollars," He glanced up from the papers and continued. "All we need to finalise the account is a copy of your passport and a signature." _

_I sat there, mouth still hanging open as though I were trying to catch non-existent flies. I knew that Adrian and his family like all other Royal Moroi, were well off but I had no idea as to the extent. _

_I reached inside of my jacket and pulled out my passport along with a wad of cash which Adrian had given me before I had left the academy. _

_Money couldn't buy you happiness or love but fifteen thousand dollars was sure as hell going to buy me a lot of things._

_At the airport I booked myself on a connecting flight to Siberia which had instantly set me back two thousand dollars. Okay so maybe fifteen thousand dollars was going to buy me a couple of things. _

_I had some time to kill before my flight, so I ended up shopping in duty free. Upon leaving the academy I had forgotten to pack a few essentials items such as a toothbrush. Not that oral hygiene really mattered when on the hunt; it's not like he was going to take time out of ripping my throat out to tell me I was letting myself go. Though for the sake of others I decided that it would have probably been in their best interest and mine to keep up appearances, I was trying to remain anonymous and it was easier to maintain anonymity through standard cleanliness. _

_I made my way to the ladies bathroom and quickly assessed my appearance. My hair was dishevelled, my eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, my lips were chapped from the cold weather not to mention the huge red spot growing at the side of my mouth. Yes, I sighed, sarcastically as I washed my face with warm water…this is exactly how I was Dimitri's mother to meet me. Ha, I could just picture it now. "Hi, I'm your son's former student and lover and I'm here to kill him." That would really go down well…_

_I stared in the mirror and sighed, taking in my saddened appearance._

------

My eyes opened reluctantly and I found myself not only being brought back to the present, two months and fifteen days later but I had also found myself staring into a pair of angry, blood thirsty crimson eyes.

"I'm here to kill him?" She asked as she tilted her head and examined me carefully. "What's the matter, Rose?" She grinned wickedly, "Not so talkative now are ya?" She sighed dejected at my reluctance to respond. "It's such a shame you won't be able to witness the downfall of your precious academy and all of it's students." Turning in her black knee high boots she walked across the hard concrete floor away from me. A few moments later, she returned with a large mirror in hand, "Wanna take a look at how pretty I've made you?" She asked thrusting the mirror in front of my face.

There was a large black bruise forming under the skin of my left eye, right next to a healing cut. My lips were swollen from the pummelling I had been subjected to for the past three hours and my hair was matted with drying blood.

"Aren't you pretty!" She giggled, peering from behind the mirror at me.

"I am…" I conceded before continuing, "Though not as pretty as Harley…" I responded and tilted my head, glaring in her direction. "She looked drop dead gorgeous on the end of my silver stake." And now it was my turn to smirk at her. I added a cruel laugh to invoke a response.

And it worked. The mirror dropped from her hands and she launched herself at me. As her body impacted heavily onto mine it caused the wooden chair I was tied to, to give way. Apparently love between Strigoi wasn't uncommon, a little knowledge which had been useful in hunting over the past two months.

She gripped a handful of my hair and pulled on it as she snarled in my face, "Shut your mouth." She used her grip on my hair to lift my head from the floor only to smack it back down a moment later.

Ow.

She released the grip on my hair and pulled her hand back to examine the blood on her finger tips, my blood. Lifting her hand to her face, she closed her eyes and licked her fingers slowly, a gentle moan of pleasure escaping her lips.

"Its such a shame, "I said using her words against her. "That you wont be able to witness the downfall of your precious little friends."

That caught her attention. She opened her eyes and beamed down at me, "The downfall of my precious friends?" She questioned, "And who exactly is going to be the one doing all of the destroying?"

"Me." Before she knew what I was doing, I wrapped my legs around her waist and spun us over, so that I was now straddling her. I bent down and head butted her twice before standing on my feet. I lifted my foot and pressed it down on her chest, stopping her from moving. "When the day becomes night we shall make our move. When the day becomes night," I continued staring down at her horrified expression. "They will turn or die."

"How did you-"

I cut her off. "You guys think you're the end? I've got news for you, I'm the fricken Armageddon, bitch!"

"He'll be there…" Escaped her lips before my Moroi magic wielded four inch heel pierced through layers of skin and flesh to stab her non beating heart.


	2. Chapter 1: Two Months and Thirteen Days

**Chapter 1: Two Months and Thirteen Days **

My body ached from the brutal beating I had been subjected to over the past twenty four hours and yet I felt stronger than ever which was probably a good thing since I was heading to back to the only person in the world where my heart was vulnerable. Lissa had been my best friend ever since I could remember; our friendship was so strong that when she had brought me back from the dead a little over two years ago she had created a blood bond between us. And just as she healed my body physically with her spirit abilities, it was my strength, courage and determination to get her through the loss of her parents and older brother that had helped heal her broken heart.

For years Lissa had been my only weakness, I lived and would die for her.

But the dynamic in our relationship changed when we returned to the academy after our 'sabbatical.' Lissa, the incredibly beautiful and once popular royal had fallen in love with an outsider at the school and I, Rose Hathaway, renowned party girl had tamed her ways and fallen head over heels in love with Dimitri Belikov, Lissa's guardian and my future partner.

For a little over a month our relationship remained professional. He was my instructor and I his student. But under a lust spell our true feelings were revealed and we could no longer deny the attraction between us. After six months of stolen kisses and regretful speeches everything came to a head in the cabin located near the elementary campus.

Dimitri had been trying to calm me down from one of my episodes but in doing so we found ourselves in a position we had been in before, but unlike the previous encounter we didn't stop to question what we were doing. That was the night when everything changed. We longer could or would deny the overpowering emotions we felt for one another, we had a plan. A plan that was ruined the night Strigoi broke into our sanctuary, the night they turned him into a deadly bloodsucker.

Two days later I handed in my withdrawal paperwork and turned my back on my life, my duty and my friends. The only thing that mattered to me was finding him and killing him.

And here I was, two months and thirteen days later…back exactly where I had started.

"Can I help you?" One of the guardians approached me from the gate, blocking my path to the school.

"Yeah, I'm here for graduation." Force of habit I scanned the surrounding area and then sized up my opponent. He was a little over six feet tall and weighed approximately two hundred and twenty pounds, all of it pure muscle.. He was wearing a pair of black trousers and a black v neck jumper which wasn't the a-typical guardian uniform but there was no doubt in my mind over his identity. "I'm a relative of Vasilisa Dragomir."

The doubt suddenly pulled to the forefront of his face, his brow creased and his eyes squinted at me accusingly. Like the majority of people, he knew that there was only one surviving Dragomir and that she was currently a student at St Vladimir Academy.

"Just testing ya there big guy," I joked. It was good to know that the academy wasn't hiring idiots to protect the school. "Well technically I suppose we are relatives, I mean isn't that what a blood bond is anyway?"

Recognition flashed in his eyes and everything changed. He was no longer squinting at me with beady eyes and his posture relaxed, well relaxed as a guardian could be. "You're Janine's girl?"

A little irritation flared up inside of me, I hated being recognised as her daughter. Surely by now my reputation as the girl who had dropped out of school and subsequently dropped off the face of the planet as far as the Moroi and Guardian world were concerned ensured that I was no longer living under my mother's shadow?

"Yeah that's me," I admitted begrudgingly.

He took the walkie talkie from his utility belt which was also housing a silver stake and a tasing gun.

"Don't tell Kirova it's me," I said before he put the device to his mouth. "I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise." That had been one of the few things I had been looking forward to, watching Headmistress Kirova's mouth fall open wide with shock at seeing me again.

He touched the button at the top of the electronic device and spoke. "Guardian Hale reporting in. There's a family member here down at the school entrance requiring admittance. I'll need someone to come and escort her to the admin office to check in. Over."

"Guardian Hale?" I whispered repeating his name, it sounded so familiar. "Aren't you one of the queen's personal guards?"

Guardian Hale grinned flashing his pearly whites, obviously he liked being recognised too.

"So, what, you got demoted or something?" I asked trying to suss out why one of the Queen's personal bodyguards was guarding the entrance to a school.

"The Queen is here to attend the graduation." He peered down at me from his six foot stature and continued to smile, all formalities gone. "It would appear the two of you like to be punctual."

I almost scoffed at the comparison but thought better of it; he was after all her personal guard and rumour had it she had soft spots for her personal guard. Still my skin crawled slightly at being compared to the cunning, manipulative royal.

A few minutes later Alberta, the captain of the guards approached the gates. "Okay, let's see…" She paused when her eyes found me. "Rose?"

A small smile graced my lips, "I don't look that different do I?" Sure it had been a while since I had last looked in the mirror. There was no need to keep up appearances when you were hunting Strigoi, although now I wished I had bought a compact mirror on my journeys. I didn't particularly want to see Lissa and my other friends if I looked like I had been dragged through a bush backwards.

"No…you look exactly the same." The admission shocked her, what the hell had she been expecting?

"O…kay," Out of sheer curiosity at her shocked expression, I glanced down at the clothes I was wearing; a pair of dirty blue denim skinny jeans, a white wife beater and a black leather jacket. My hands reached up and touched my face, "Oh…" Sure I had showered after my encounter with a female Strigoi yesterday but the shower hadn't been able to erase after effects; one large almost black, mostly purple bruise under my left eye, the healing cut beside it and lips swollen as the result of my face being used as a punching bag. "These…" I paused pulling my hands away from my face. "I had a disagreement with a hairbrush," I joked.

Alberta shook her head at me, "You haven't changed," She walked past Guardian Hale and picked up my bag, throwing it over her shoulder. "Come on," She turned in her heelless boots and headed up the pathway towards the school.

I nodded to Guardian Hale before turning and following Alberta up the path.

"Don't walk behind me, Hathaway…"

I quickened my pace and joined her side, confused. Wasn't it a novice's job to be seen and not heard? I walked by her side and yet even though I knew I was safe within the walls of the academy, or at least as safe as one could be…my eyes continued to scout the area, assessing the dangers. Ahead was the ancient school building, to the right the elementary campus and to the left the forest, which was currently pitch-black. I kept one peering eye on the darkness.

"If you see something lurking in the shadows, its one of the Queen's many personal bodyguards." I turned to look at Alberta and found her gaze on me. "As you've probably guessed from Guardian Hale's post at the entrance, they've taken over the majority of the security on campus." Her expression twisted slightly.

"Don't worry," I smiled facing forward as we continued up the long path. "Their security is working…I don't see any ghosts." It had been apparent when the school's perimeter had been broken a couple of months ago, that my other worldly friends only came to play when the wards were weak or bust.

"Do you still see them?" She asked, curiosity getting the better of her. All throughout my education at the academy, Alberta had been the only guardian whom had never broke protocol, she always remained strictly professional with her colleagues and with the students.

"Yes," I admitted honestly. There was no point in lying about it anymore, everyone at the academy surely had to know by now that Rose Hathaway's spell of craziness hadn't been so crazy after all. "But it's not like they're stalking me, they only show up when…" I paused, not wanting to continue. My exploits after leaving the academy were hardly something I wanted to talk about.

I paused at the entrance to the school building. Alberta was leading me to the administration office but in order to do so we would have to go through the school's cafeteria and it was breakfast time for the Moroi and Dhamphir students. "Maybe we should wait…" I halted and stared at the door.

"They're going to find out sooner or later." Alberta opened the door to the school building and entered. A few moments later she disappeared from sight.

I had faced down countless Strigoi over the past two months and here I was struggling to get a grip on my teenage hormones. A deep sigh escaped my lips and I recognised the emotion stirring inside of me; fear. I was scared to walk through a set of doors and be confronted by the judgements of those I left behind. No one aside from Lissa had known why I had left the academy. To them I was just another novice drop out who couldn't hack the pressure, to them I was weak.

My hands reached out and pulled on the door handles. With another deep breath, I opened the doors and stepped inside of the school building, ready to face down their judgements.

As soon as I stepped into the corridor leading to the cafeteria and subsequently the admin office, all eyes were on me. My eyes quickly assessed the corridor; fourteen Junior Moroi students were standing with their mouths hanging open, ready to catch flies and three junior novices were staring with what could only be described as awe at me.

I moved swiftly down the corridor towards the connecting doors. Inside eating breakfast would be all of my former classmates, my friends.

"Is it really her?"

I heard whispered behind me. The girls voice was shocked but held a sort of wonder about it – and that was all I needed to boost my confidence levels. Pulling on the set of double doors, I stepped inside of the cafeteria.

All chatter died down and room went completely silent.

"Jesus…"

I recognised the voice and my eyes scanned the room to find the mouth it belonged to. Sitting towards the back of the room was Christian Ozera. In an instant he was up out of his chair and striding towards me.

"Good to see you too, Ozera."

He stopped a foot in front of me and reached out with his index finger, poking me in the shoulder.

"Okay…I wasn't exactly expecting a hug…but I wasn't expecting that either."

Christian looked up at and grinned. "No…it's just." He paused and leaned in closer. "It's really you." He paused and his smile faltered when his eyes grazed me face, "Or a slightly beaten version of you."

"You should see the other guy," I joked trying to lighten the incredibly thick tension in the room.

"Does Lissa know you're…" He paused and shook his head, "No, she still thinks.." He looked back up and found my confused expression. "I'm sorry, it's just…well we heard rumours that you were…" Again he paused with his words. I had never known Christian to stumble with his grammar, especially when it came to me.

"Spit it out, flame boy."

"Dead."

"Oh…" That would explain everyone's expression; seeing a supposed dead girl walking the school hallway would be jaw-dropping material. "Well.." What could you say to that?

"Rose?"


	3. Chapter 2: You Can't Kill a Hathaway

**Chapter 2: You Can't Kill a Hathaway.**

That was the one voice I hadn't expect to hear. I turned slowly in my steel capped toe, pure silver heeled shoes and found myself standing face to face with the somewhat unfamiliar woman I called mom. What was she doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be in South Asia guarding one of the royal families?

A confused expression crossed her stoic face before her cool, untouchable mask bounced back into place. For a moment I could have sworn I saw a look of concern in her eyes, it was possible after all she wasn't devoid of all human emotions just because she was a guardian. "Are you here for Lissa's graduation?"

It was straight to business then, not that I expected anything else. "Yes." I glanced around the cafeteria and met the watchful gazes of those who had once been my classmates. For them this was prime time entertainment, not only had Rose Hathaway the once troublesome novice returned but she was also reuniting with her estranged mother whom had given her a black eye a little over four months ago.

She nodded. "We'll talk later." She peered out of the corner of her eyes at our spectators before promptly turning in her flat shoes and disappearing back to wherever she had come from.

A breath of air flew from my mouth as though I had just been winded by a blow to the stomach, the thought of having that conversation with my mother made me feel slightly queasy. I could picture the conversation clearly; it was undoubtedly going to take place in a small confined space with enough room for just the two of us, there was one thing my mother hated doing and that was causing or being part of a scene. She would look down at me with a haughty scowl and say something along the lines of how I had been irresponsible and childish leaving the school before graduation. I could picture the conversation because we had had a similar one not too long ago, when Lissa and I had returned to the school following our sabbatical. Well at least she wasn't going to be able to say I had put someone else's life in danger in the process of being irresponsible, I suppose that was a plus.

"Not exactly the mother, daughter showdown I expected."

Christian's words brought me back to the present. I turned and regarded with a mock raised brow, "Why, because it didn't involve the exchanging of fists?" It was common knowledge amongst my classmates that my mother had given me a black eye during a sparring session in the gymnasium.

He shrugged expectantly.

I glanced over his shoulder and saw Alberta waiting for me at the end of the cafeteria. "I've gotta go." I turned back to him and sighed, "Gotta check in with Kirova…now that should be interesting."

"You should wait and let her come to you." Christian glanced around at the gawking teens before turning back to me. He stepped closer and whispered in my ear. "You could make a killing."

I rolled my eyes at the suggestion; it was typical of him to think of ways to extort the senior class, after all the only students he actually liked in the school were his girlfriend and my best friend Lissa Dragomir and Eddie, the novice who had been assigned to Lissa during the trials. "I would..." It wasn't a bad idea and I was a little short for cash, "But Kirova like the hawk she is would find out and would definitely kick me out."

I had moved past Christian and made three steps towards Alberta before the thought crossed my mind. News in this school spread like wildfire and by now Lissa surely would have heard that the ever astonishing Rose Hathaway was back. It was unfair of her to hear it through the grapevine and would most likely only add more wood to the already blazing fired greeting that was awaiting me. To say we hadn't left things on a positive note would be putting it mildly.

"Christian…" I quickly turned and captured his attention again. "Tell her before she finds out from someone else." That's if she hasn't already heard, I added silently.

Christian nodded before walking in the opposite direction to find Lissa.

I turned and followed Alberta out of the cafeteria and away from peering eyes.

"Easier than you thought it would be?" Alberta asked as she led me down the long corridor leading to Headmistress Kirova's office.

I couldn't answer because my heart was beating heavily away against my ribcage. It had in a way been easier than I thought it would be but then that wasn't really the storm I was afraid of facing. "Why is my mother here?" I asked in a not so subtle way of changing the subject. Thinking about the storm I would eventually have to face could and would wait.

"After the attack the Queen listed the school as a category two and put a motion forward within the senate that would see schools such as St Vladimir's have more protection. With the standing your mother has within both the Moroi and Guardian community she was able to put herself on the short list of guardians who were required to report to the school." Alberta turned and looked at me, her grey coloured eyes dimming slightly as she spoke her next words. "You may know that a few of the other schools housing both Moroi and Dhamphir students were hit."

According to reports I had heard over the last couple of months, St Vladimir's was one of the more fortunate schools; we had managed to recover the majority of missing students and had sustained barely any casualties. Through my 'travels', as I would now call them to stop people asking too many questions, I had come across some of these missing Moroi students. Of course they were no longer Moroi when I found them.

Alberta stopped outside of Headmistress Kirova's office and knocked on the door twice before turning the handle and entering the lion's den. "Headmistress Kirova," Always with the formalities, "We have an unexpected visitor."

Instead of waiting for Alberta to continue and ruin the surprise, I stepped into the office and grinned at the woman who had made the better part of my academic life hell. "I know…back from the dead, apparently." I stepped further into the office and quickly examined it, nothing had changed. "You really should redecorate…get a little of that feng shui thing going, you know balancing life and good karma and all that jazz."

"Miss Hathaway," She stood from behind her desk as her eyes quietly appraised me. As her eyes danced over my figure it gave me a chance to examine her more closely. The room may not have changed but she had. Her eyes were sporting very visible red veins and nasty bags under the eyelids, her hair looked whiter…she looked older and tired, very tired.

"Rose is here to attend Princess Dragomir's graduation," Alberta filled the silence by explaining my presence. Well one of the reasons for my presence.

"Is that so?" Kirova sat back down in her chair and folded her arms on her desk. "So you haven't come back to graduate with the rest of your class?" She eyed me suspiciously, as if my ulterior motives could be that devious.

"No, "I moved across the room and sat in the chair opposite her desk. Over the years that chair had become a second home to me with all the hours I had spent in her office, getting reprimanded for doing something wrong. "I'm here strictly for Lissa's graduation," I paused unsure of whether or not to continue. If I told them about the supposed impending attack I would have to sit through hours of questions, the majority of which I couldn't answer. Sure I knew that the Strigoi were planning another attack against St Vladimir's and I knew when, but I didn't know how or anything else. Nothing made sense. So instead of being subjected to hours of interrogation and with my background, being viewed as crazy I opted to keep that little piece of information to myself…until I knew more.

"Is that everything?" Kirova asked when I didn't continue.

"Pretty much," Sure it was probably the wrong thing to do but honestly what was the point of sharing information like that when ultimately they wouldn't believe me. "I left some things here too, so I should probably collect them." I hadn't been able to put all of my belongings in the backpack just the essentials; underwear, sneakers, jeans, hoodie, silver stake.

Kirova looked me over with doubtful eyes but nonetheless nodded in what I presumed was an approval. I stood up from my chair and realised I didn't know where to go. Would I be camping down in the visitor's wing or would they let me stay with Lissa? That was if Lissa wanted to room with me which judging by our parting words, I doubted it. "Yes?" She raised her brow curiously.

"Where do I …I need to change," I pointed down to my incredibly dirty outfit. "Where would I do that?"

Kirova looked from Alberta and then back to me, "In your old dormitory room, Rose." She paused allowing herself the moment of seeing pure astonishment cross my face. "Your personal belongings haven't been touched as per the request of Miss Dragomir."

Lissa had requested that my things remained where they were? That should have given me a line of hope however an uneasy feeling in my stomach stopped that hope from growing. "Okay…" I turned to move out of the room but looked back over my shoulder, "Thank you." Again it was my turn to see a look of complete surprise wrap around her face; apparently I was going to be taking everyone by surprise today.

I followed Alberta out of the office and took my backpack from her capable hands. She smiled and then gave me the once over again though this time her eyes paused on my feet.

"Are those?" She bent down to get a closer look at my custom made boots.

"Yeah," I tilted my left foot to the side so she could get a better look at the heel. "I was in Boston so...he was going to give me a regular old stake but I think he liked my personality so he uh… went a little more creative." Jackson DeVendre was notorious for his weapon wielding abilities in our supernatural world. He was Moroi and yet he dedicated his life to using the four elements to wield weapons for guardians. "He said not only was it one of his most imaginative creations but it also gave me," I pulled my hands up in the air and quoted him, "a little boost in the height department." With the heels I stood at a little over the five feet seven mark compared to my usual five feet, four inches.

"There are only a handful of guardians who have met him," She looked across at me with troubled eyes.

"Yeah well you know me," I smiled, "I can be pretty persistent." Of course in the past when others had described me in that way, they had usually opted for more colourful words.

Alberta nodded and her trouble eyes vanished. "Yes I know." She glanced over her shoulder towards the cafeteria and then back at me. "I've teaching the AGCT class in twenty minutes, if you feel able you should come make an appearance. I know you're classmates would like to see you…and you could possibly even indulge us to how you've spent the past two months." Something in her eyes told me that she had an inkling as to what I had been doing, though I highly doubted she knew the reason behind it.

"Sure." I had plenty of stories to tell, some of them were a little more graphic than others which my former classmates would love.

Alberta nodded and then turned in her flat shoes and made her way back towards the cafeteria. I opted to go the long route to save myself more judgemental stares. The walk back to my old dormitory was fairly quick and straightforward, I passed several Moroi juniors but they didn't stop to question me – they just stared as the others had done, bug eyed and jaws unhinged.

I stopped outside of my bedroom door, closed my eyes and for a fleeting second allowed myself to remember the past. Sure for the better part of my education here at the academy, I had been on report and spent a lot of time in Kirova's office but there were good memories too – most of them revolved around Lissa and him…Dimitri. And within a flash those good memories vanished and instead all I could see were a pair of blood, red angry eyes.

"Rose?"

My eyes opened and I glanced over my shoulder and there she stood in all her beauty and unlike my fellow classmates, she looked neither shocked nor amazed at my presence. Instead her facial expression was displaying a range of emotions; she was angry, happy, upset. And beside her was her ever present boyfriend, Christian.

"Hey…" It was anticlimactic and hardly the first thing I had wanted to say to her but it would have to do. I turned and opened the door to my bedroom before stepping inside. The two of them followed me inside and I dropped my backpack to the floor. I could feel through the bond that was ready to bombard me with questions. "Just give me a couple of seconds before you start with the interrogation."

The door closed behind me and with it went about ninety percent of the air – in its place was a heavy cloud of tension. Well that was just great. I walked across the room, dropped the backpack to the floor and took off my leather jacket.

Behind me Lissa gasped and I presumed the sharp intake of breath belonged to Christian.

"Oh my god Rose…" Suddenly the questions disappeared and instead I was emotionally bowled over by the wave of concern flowing from her. "What happened?"


	4. Chapter 3: A Little Q and A Never

**Chapter 3: A Little Q and A Never Hurt Anyone…**

I was amazed that I was still in my own skin; in past situations that involved such sudden rushes of emotions or powerful feelings on Lissa's part, I had almost always unwittingly been sucked into her subconscious. I was by science fiction's definition a body snatcher, only a lousy one unable to control her host. Being able to put a stop to Lissa and Christian's one on one sessions while a third party namely I was present would have been useful to say the least.

"Rose?" Her panicked voice broke through my inner dialogue. She was worried that my silence indicated I was relieving the traumatic event.

Turning on the balls of my feet, I found myself face to face with two of them. I briefly contemplated shrugging the question off and trying to start a new topic of conversation but Lissa's facial expression told me that it was not going to be a viable option. So instead I opted to tell her the truth.

I crossed the room and sat down on the single bed that had once been mine. "People on the outside aren't Rose enthusiasts." I grinned up at the two of them, "Apparently even Strigoi are sensitive about their appearances, I mean you make one little joke about a peroxide blonde and she goes all skitzo on your ass."

At least my comment had the desired effect on Christian, he laughed at my recollection. Lissa on the other hand was still wearing the same saddened expression.

"How can you joke about it?" Her questioning gaze turned from me to Christian, wiping the small smirk from his face and then back to me. "It's not funny."

"The truth is Liss," I stood up from the bed and stood before her. "I don't remember how they happened."

"You don't remember?" Lissa's brow rose in response, she was unconvinced. She thought I was trying to hide the truth from her – again.

"I've been in a lot…" I struggled to find the right words, I didn't want to be brutally honest because I knew that the gory details of how I retained my scars would upset and scare her. "I've been in a lot of situations where my back has been used as a cutting board….after a while it gets hard to distinguish how each mark was made." There that wasn't too brutal.

"Each mark?" Christian asked intrigued, of course he would be.

Standing up from the bed, I turned my back on them both and lifted my tank top up to where the back of my bra was clasped together.

"Oh my god…"

"They're not as bad as they seem." One of my opponents had made sure that I had gotten a good look at their work of art. "Really, it's not that big a deal." I lied and slid my shirt back down my stomach so that my scars of torture were securely covered.

"Please stop saying that," Lissa's voice pleaded with me while her mind tapped into the bond and through it she was able to bombard me with a series of questions. Why was I lying to her? Why did I come back? Was I here for her? Did I find Dimitri? Did I kill him?

"Stop – please." My palm raised flat in the air to silence her thoughts and her voice, I could only process one thing at a time. "I've forgotten how it can be around you…" Her brow furrowed, upset. "No, no…I mean, it's just overwhelming to be so close – the bond."

Lissa nodded understanding.

Christian raised his brow and took two steps closer to Lissa. "Okay, I think that's my cue to quick soft kiss against her cheek. His chocolate coloured eyes turned back to regard me with a grin, "I'm glad you didn't die, Rose. "

Lissa threw her elbow back and elbowed him in the ribs.

"What?" He asked with a grin still plastered to his face as he playfully rubbed at the spot where she had hit him.

"It's called tact and I think that was her subtle way of telling you that you don't have it!" I grinned watching the two of them. In the past I had never been an advocate for their touchy-feely, puppy dog love but maybe it was true, maybe absence did make the heart grow fonder.

"Yeah well all I meant was its good to have you back." Christian admitted sheepishly, blushing from the admittance. From the way his pale cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink you would have thought he was confessing to something humiliating. "Life around here has been incredibly boring and uneventful."

"Aww, we gonna braid friendship bracelets and stay up all night talking?" I joked, hoping to keep the mood light for my imminent one on one session with Lissa.

"And the bitch is back." Christian rolled his eyes dramatically before shaking his head. He had obviously missed having me as a verbal sparring partner and was in need of some time to get back on form. "See you babe," he squeezed Lissa's shoulder before making his way out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Babe? Since when had they turned into that couple who used cutesy nicknames that made everyone else want to barf?

Lissa crossed the room and sat at the bottom of the bed. She kicked off her beige coloured wedges and sat crossed legs on the bed.

I turned and sat down at the head of the bed, mimicked her movements and sat crossed legged. It felt just like old times, where she would come over to my room so we could talk about boys, girls who had been bitches to us that day and…boys. Of course when she had started dating Christian, our long girl chats had become less frequent. And as my secret relationship with Dimitri heated up, I all but stopped the chats in fear of what I would say.

"So…does this feel awkward?" Lissa asked, causing the tension in the room to be kicked up a notch - because it did feel awkward.

"Yeah it does," I admitted, "So why don't we just cut all the bull and just dive right in." There was no point in trying to dodge this bullet, she was going to pester me until she found out all of the details.

"Okay," She nodded. I expected the first question to be something simple, something that would ease us into what was undoubtedly going to be a heart wrenching conversation. But she skipped the formalities and dived straight in, just like I had told her to. "Did you find him?" She waited a couple of seconds for me to answer and when I didn't, she repeated herself. "Did you find Dimitri?"

"Did you tell anyone that's why I left?" I asked impulsively, wondering if my cover had been blown. Maybe my mother wasn't here out of purely love and affection, maybe she had found out that I had been having an affair with Dimitri.

"No, I didn't tell anyone...technically." Lissa paused and bit down on her bottom lip, an unbreakable habit of hers indicating her nerves. "Adrian told me that he had set you up with a bank account and that after you had…you know, done what you needed to do." She said, trying to be sensitive about what had been my objective. "He said that you would come back."

"I didn't kill him." I answered, a little less tactful. "I thought he would go home – so I went there." It was hard for me, excruciatingly so to talk about this but she deserved an honest answer from me for a chance. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath to stop myself from reliving the moments. Sure the fighting, the torture I could handle but remembering the look on his mother's face when I had told her why I had come to Russia…it was heartbreaking. "He didn't – so instead I started tracking other Strigoi hoping that sooner or later I would come across the ones he was with."

"What do you mean?" Lissa asked.

I didn't need for her to clarify which part she didn't understand, I already knew. "They've become… strategic." It was a diplomatic way of saying that they were better killers if they stuck in packs. Her eyes clouded over in confusion, she couldn't comprehend my words but then we had been always taught that Strigoi were more like wild dogs than any other rational animal – unable to stay together. "They live and hunt in packs – it makes them more efficient killers."

A visible shiver ran through her, she closed her eyes to stop the mental pictures of early fall from coming back. She hadn't witnessed the things I had been subjected to but she had a good imagination like any. "And that's how you got your scars?" She asked with her eyes still closed.

"Yeah – apparently I'm too pretty and entertaining to kill straight off the bat." Not that I was complaining. It was over this time, when they had kept me chained up like a pet to abusive that I had learnt ways to efficiently break them down and defeat them.

"How many are usually in a …" Her light jade eyes opened as she searched for the word I had used earlier to describe them, "pack?"

"It can range from three to seven or eight." This was a conversation I had expected to have with Alberta and my AGCT former classmates, not my Moroi best friend. "The more of them there are, the harder it is for them to co-exist peacefully."

"You know so much…" Lissa was astounded at the extent of my knowledge, two months by her standards wasn't enough time to gather so much data. "How many have you killed?"

Throughout school I had imagined tallying up my Strigoi death count so that the molnija marks on my neck would be represented honestly, thus letting the world know how many I had killed. And yet here I was a simple high school drop out with three marks to my neck and countless deaths on my hands. How many had I killed? Thirty? Possibly forty? The truth was I had stopped counting after the first three; it became less about the glory and more about the precision of the kill.

"You know when I was chained to a wall and being someone's little play thing of the day," The words tumbled out before I had a chance to monitor them for content, "One of the things that kept me going was our bond." My eyes found her beautiful jade coloured eyes and a warm, gentle smile touched my lips. "Being able to be here with you was my escape." At times breaking away mentally from the physical torture I had been subjected to, was the only thing that kept me alive.

"You kept an eye on me?" Lissa asked slightly surprised by my admission.

"Of course I did!" I responded as though it were the most natural thing in the world, for me to be checking up on her. I was hardly going to leave my best friend, the only person who had never abandoned me high and dry.

Lissa looked down as a tender smile played at her lips for a moment before she let brow furrow once again. She had never expressed so much open concern on her face than she had these past twenty minutes. "You said you didn't kill him…" She glanced up at me, eyes confused. "Then why are you back?"

I should have lied. I should have told her that she was the reason for my sudden return. I should have said that I couldn't miss graduation despite everything that we had been through. I should have said anything other than what involuntarily came out of my mouth.

"Because he's coming here…they're all coming here."


End file.
